They're like snowflakes

Monologuist paper update supplemental number iii: Take 2

So... these little folded screenprinted portfolios were supposed to be done in time for Autoptic last August. I even listed them on my store site at the time. And got some orders. As it turns out, I didn't finish them until last night. This is the front cover, in its sleeve with a little sticker on the front:

The project exemplifies everything I hate and love most about screenprinting.  I re-burned the screens about six times each before I gave up and paid Wes at Burlesque to do it for me. I changed my mind twelve or thirteen times about the colors. Usually in mid-stream. At one point things weren't working quite right and I decided I needed a new image/layer and since they were so late I decided to cut it out of black paper rather than draw it, scan it and have to get a new film made. I didn't think I had enough time for all that. That was about three weeks ago.

And that was one of the surprising things that turned out to work. I'd never done that before. I'm a terrible printer for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that I can't resist the temptation to make changes as I go. At a certain point in the process – orders for the prints were two months late by this time – I decided to embrace the temptation. Sometimes your worst enemy turns out to actually be your best friend.

So now they're done. In the end the piece is more a collection of monoprints than an edition. None of the individual pieces is quite the same as any other. As I went along I also started using the discard pile as part of that screwing around process. And I liked those as much as the actual piece itself. So there's a test print included in each package with the real piece. It's like Crackerjacks.

The finished piece is a bunch of variations on some collage comics and drawings from my sketchbooks. The inside was printed by Burlesque, 4 colors approximating CMYK. The outside was printed by me as described above in between 5 and 6 colors depending on which one you get.

To order and see the giant lovely disaster for yourself, go here. Individual results may vary.

Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi

The current show at Lula, Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi's paintings and constructions, is on its way down. The work in the bar came out two days ago and the rest of the work comes down next Tuesday. Because you are, after all, reading the blog of someone who makes books, it seemed appropriate to post some of the stuff, much of it book based, that they had in the cases in the bar (for those of you who have never been, the bar at Lula is made from old humidors salvaged from the cigar store that used to occupy the space...so the bar is hollow and covered in glass–we show art there, as well as on the walls). The first two pieces are children's books that Nadine painted in to alter/interact with. As is often the case, the physicality of these is pretty well lost in just zeros and ones, but they're awesome. Here are two of my favorite spreads:


The next three are Nick's, from a blank book in which he did a series of small paintings.



Lastly is a handmade book of what I'll call improvisational screen printing. Nick made a number of small screens with various geometric shapes and used them to create different compositions, ultimately binding them together in the book. Again...physicality, uselessness of computer screens, subtlety, awesomeness, etc etc ad naseum. Following these last book pieces are two more drawing/painting collage type things. Did I mention their posters?